Orange County commissioners decided by a 4-3 vote Tuesday to fight the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s plan to take more environmentally sensitive, county-owned acres for the Osceola County Parkway segment it intends to build through Split Oak Forest.
The narrow decision likely will force CFX to sue the county to get the land it wants.
The road-building authority offered about $2.39 million last week for 46.7 county-owned acres it deemed “necessary” for a 1.3-mile leg of the toll road, according to records obtained Monday by the Orlando Sentinel through a public records request.
The land includes 24 acres deemed “environmentally sensitive,” including a piece of Eagles Roost Park.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, on the losing side of the vote along with commissioners Christine Moore and Mike Scott, said he believed negotiating with the expressway agency would have been a better route for the county to “make sure we get as much out of it as we possibly can.”
He said CFX was likely to prevail in court.
Commissioner Scott added, “I’m all for being a gladiator, right? But if we can resolve this in a way that makes sense in a conversation, why not make that effort?”
About two dozen advocates for Split Oak Forest appealed to the board to stand its ground and fight. They hope a combative stance will not only protect the acreage at issue, but stop the Split Oak cut-through altogether.
They also rallied before the meeting.
In Split Oak quandary, Orange County must decide to bargain or brawl
Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, a Split Oak advocate long before she won a commission seat in 2024, said she believed the county could prevail if it has to rumble in court to stop CFX from taking land deemed necessary to build the road.
The expressway agency’s preferred route for the toll road segment extends east from the Orlando International Airport across the forest’s southern edge, then further east to vast swaths of land in Orange and Osceola counties that are marked for residential and commercial projects.
Supporters of the proposed route through the forest include Osceola County government; Tavistock Development Co., the maker of Medical City and Orlando’s Lake Nona community; and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose real estate holdings in Central Florida include 300,000 undeveloped acres east and south of Orlando’s airport held by a subsidiary, Deseret Ranches.
The state of Florida approved the Split Oak cut-through in 2024.
Semrad scoffed at CFX’s claim that the project has a strong public purpose — a necessary justification for taking land by eminent domain, which CFX is expected to do if the county resists a sale.
“A toll road loses any claim of a public benefit when it primarily unlocks land for the benefit of private developers rather than the general public, when it exists to unlock or accelerate development, when public agencies absorb the costs while private entities capture the value…” she said. “There is nothing out there but a swamp. There’s not a single residence. The voters know what’s happening.”
Semrad was joined in her vote for a court fight by commissioners Nicole Wilson, Maribel Gomez Cordero and Mayra Uribe.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com